


Doll's Eyes

by aeitric



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Crazy Eren, M/M, Minor/Major Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-29 20:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5141294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeitric/pseuds/aeitric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Are you strange like me?<br/>Are you deranged like me?"</p><p>-Gasoline</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doll's Eyes

"There. You look perfect."

Eren spoke softly to himself as he fixed his beautiful dolls, all stacked neatly on towering planks of woods lightly painted a dimming white. Every doll was hand-stitched with care, love and focused determination. Their eyes all sparkled like a real human's, each iris glassy and glazed over as if preparing to cry. Eren cut their hair, dressed them, and even sometimes took them outside when the people of the village didn't give him the dirty looks he had grown accustomed to. No one enjoyed the town dollmaker's presence except the children, who would circle around Eren, chanting their pleas to brush a doll's soft hair or feel their tiny delicate palms. The boy surely didn't mind watching the kids enjoy the dolls as much as he himself did. It gave him comfort that some still appreciated the work he put into each one.

The doll he was creating now had long red hair, which Eren tightly braided with a red plaid bow. He reminded himself to run down to the square for more buttons that would hold the doll's overalls. He had put slightly less effort into this one, less so then he usually did. Something just seemed out of place with Eren's little shack. It wasn't that it was empty besides himself and the fair fake children, as it was just as any other day where there were no customers. Eren rummaged through the doll's plastered faces with a needle, searching for cracks in their smooth faces. He flicked around until dark, until his pupils were out of focus and he couldn't think straight. When he closed his eyes, round cheeks with tiny smiles flashed on his eyelids.

A knock on the door brought Eren out of his vegetative state. He hurried to the door although his mind wondered why someone would drop by this late. He wasn't closed, exactly, mostly because he never opened. He worked almost all hours of the clock, as his dolls needed all of the seconds in Eren's waking state. Usually, he relished in two hours of sleep at night at most. Anything for his precious children. When he opened the door, there was a rustling far beyond where Eren stood. He called out his questions to the darkness of the night and was not answered to other than a gentle tingling laughter. Looking down, Eren viewed the most beautiful doll he had ever witnessed.

Porcelain as white as ivory against neat black hair styled into a messy undercut. Heavy lidded eyes that sparkled with an almost real childish innocence. The doll was otherworldly when it laughed, peering up at Eren and deep into his soul. He picked up the doll, wrapped in a dark blue blanket the color of the little thing's eyes that shrouded over the mystery doll. When he tilted the lithe body back, it sleepily shut it's eyes. Eren grinned; the eye maneuver was still fairly new in the doll community and just made the doll more beautiful, more exotic and brand new. However, to Eren's dismay, both the doll and it's crochet blanket were filthy, covered with muck and small twigs.

As Eren ran warm water over the smooth skin, he marveled at the pristine condition of the doll's white porcelain. There were no cracks or scrapes although being dirty and unkempt. When Eren was finished washing the doll, he dressed it in an extra pair of black bottoms he had been saving and a dark blue top that accented the tiny thing's stunning eyes. The doll creaked unpleasantly when Eren cut and styled it's hair but stopped momentarily as Eren was finished. The tall boy chuckled at the strange doll's fascinating behavior, unlike anything he would ever be capable of creating. Whoever made the doll even took the time to make sure the outerwards was warm, soft and pliable. Must have been a new material the city doll workers had created.

Pink, even slightly chapped lips pouted perfectly, long eyelashes framing oceans and seas. It couldn't have been a city doll. It was too wonderful, too precise for the cheaply made city dolls Eren had come across in shops dotting the square. The doll laughed softly again and Eren stroked it's tiny pale forehead and pressed a kiss in the shadow of his bony fingers. He didn't feel safe leaving the doll alone so opted for leaving him on the dresser by the scrawny couch where he slept little to not at all. However, Eren had a restful sleep for the first time in a very long time since moving into the dingy wooden hut he was barely able to call a home. He didn't want to say it was because of the doll's presence, but something about the calm stare lulled him into a blissful sleep.

When days turn to weeks turned to months with the doll, Eren quickly grew attached to it's gently firm expression and smooth, untouched skin. Soon the other dolls he had made grew dusty and old, forgotten in Eren's love for the doll with enchanting eyes. He spend all day caring for the doll, and only slept when he was holding it in his arms. The scent of it's old home was wearing off and now smelled like woodchips and smoke, Eren's smell. He was infatuated with the doll, pure and simple. The doll seemed to smile at him, sometimes, but Eren caught tiny sad expressions that were probably just tricks of light.

When there was a knock on the door of Eren's cottage, he had to pause trimming the bottom of his beautiful boy's undercut. Lately, it had been been loosening. That or it was growing. Eren laughed at the thought of a doll's hair growing. However, when he opened the door his quiet chuckle ceased as he was met with a dead serious expression. The woman in front of him looked like the doll left on his doorstep, but with softer cheekbones, thinner lips and... well... human.

"I'm terribly sorry to disturb you, sir, but I left my Levi on your doorstep a few months ago. I'm now in a better financial state and I would like to take him back. Thank you so very much for caring for him. I miss my son, please."

Son? Eren's doll? Her son?

Her Levi?

No.

He was about to tell the woman where his foot was about to go in three seconds if she didn't leave his doorstep, but she glanced back and saw Levi sitting in the tiny chair where Eren left him. She laughed in delight, shoving past Eren to catch the doll in an embrace. Except Eren's doll was moving on his own. Wrapping his skinny arms around him mother as he cried out in relief and happiness. Eren slipped one of his heavy wrenches in his warm palm, letting the chill of the silver handles bite his hand as he held them behind his back.

"Thank you so much!" A step closer.

My Levi.

"How could I ever repay you?" A step closer.

My Levi.

"Hold on... what is that behind your back?" Eren stopped, and raised his wrench.

My Levi.

"Plea-" The woman's sentence was cut off by a sickening crack resonating from her skull.

Eren picked up his doll and shielded his glassy eyes as he carried the beautiful doll to the bathtub where he filled at tub with warm water and scrubbed at the blood on his otherwise flawless bloodly palms. His Levi was crying now, which was odd. Must be a new technique. The crying was so loud, bouncing off the walls and pummeling into Eren's skull.

Eren pleaded with him to stop. Begged. The doll wouldn't stop crying.

So he did the only thing he thought to do.

He wrapped his hands around the tiny neck and submerged the head until bubbles no longer rose and the skin under his hands was no longer warm.

And the crying stopped.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any questions, I hope these will answer them! If not, please feel free to ask.
> 
> 1\. Yes, Levi was a human boy. Eren saw him a doll because he was lonely.
> 
> 2\. Eren was crazy slightly because of loneliness, but also because he was tired and overworked.
> 
> 3\. The woman was Kushel Ackerman, as you may have figured.
> 
> 4\. In some way, Eren knew Levi was a real boy but he forced it down.
> 
> 5\. After killing both Levi and Kushel, Eren doused the wooden house in gasoline and burned it with himself inside.
> 
> 6\. This story actually made me uncomfortable to write, ahhhh :v


End file.
